


The Promised Day

by National_Nobody



Series: Bluepulse Week 2020 [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bluepulse Week 2020, Day 1: Seven Deadly Sins, F/M, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood AU, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, It gets bloody y'all, M/M, Spoilers for FMA:B Finale, scene retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:06:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24874309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/National_Nobody/pseuds/National_Nobody
Summary: Bluepulse Week 2020 Day 1 - Seven Deadly SinsGreed watched the fight from his perch on the ramparts, a sharp, hungry grin spreading across his face. Father was still standing tall in the center of it all, the bastard, looking the soldiers over like a bored, malevolent king.“Ha! Amazing,” he chuckled to himself. “If I had power like that, this entire world would be mine in no time.”The voice inside him scoffed at that—the boy who wouldn’t fully leave this vessel. Jaime Reyes.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Bart Allen & Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist), Bart Allen & Wally West, Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes, Jaime Reyes & Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Series: Bluepulse Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799878
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	The Promised Day

**Author's Note:**

> Happy bluepulse week!!! Listen, I hear Seven Deadly Sins and I _immediately_ think of FMA:B. In this case, the moment I did, I couldn't help thinking about the parallels between Ling & Greed's symbiotic relationship and Jaime & Khaji's. So here we are.
> 
> A giant THANK YOU to the glorious [CasualThursday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasualThursday), [potooyoutoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/potooyoutoo) and [funnyhowthatis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnyhowthatis) for their love & their editing prowess (and for helping to get me into FMA:B in the first place), and to the lovely [ivettxwrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivettxwrites) for always being down to squeal about bluepulse with me & help me work through my ideas. <3
> 
> Rather than doing a fully fleshed out FMA:B AU with DC/YJ characters, I decided to do more of a drag and drop situation and just plop these DC characters into the events of the FMA:B finale, just so I could get in my feelings again about both Wally and Greed. I slotted the YJ characters where I thought it'd make the most sense functionally, rather than trying to match them up to FMA:B characters with similar personalities (just wouldn't have worked as well).
> 
> If you haven't watched Fullmetal Alchemist before, SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FINALE!!! You have been warned. Also, hopefully I've given enough context clues that you can still figure out/understand what's going on even if you know next to nothing?
> 
> The only background info you really need is that the world's magic system is called alchemy (transmuting one thing into another by using the law of equivalent exchange; aka you can't create something from nothing, but you can take one object and turn it into something else, as long as it is of similar value/energy/matter) and that the Big Bad of the show is a non-human, nearly indestructible being called a homunculus who created a bunch of other homunculi 'children' (mostly villainous & all named after the seven deadly sins, hence the connection to the prompt) that are all powered by/created using magical objects called Philosopher's Stones (which in turn are created/powered by sacrificing a bunch of human souls [the more souls sacrificed during the creation of one, the more powerful the stone]).
> 
> ANYWAY, for those who _do_ know FMA:B here's a quick reference for who's 'playing' whose role:  
> Jaime - Ling  
> Bart - Ed  
> Wally - Alphonse  
> Thad - Hohenheim  
> Eobard - Father  
> Zatanna - May  
> Conner - (Alex) Armstrong  
> Dinah - Olivier Armstrong  
> M'gann - Izumi  
> Artemis - Winry
> 
> Enjoy!

**Central Commander Center** **  
****11:16 AM** **  
****The Day of Reckoning**

The ground above their heads shook with a _boom_ louder than any Conner ever had heard from their artillery, chunks of concrete giving way to the sky above and crashing in chalky pieces to the floor.

“Operations,” Dinah spoke sharply into the radio. “It’s me. What’s happening?”

_“—General, it’s the Central Command Center...half of it’s been blown up!”_

Conner’s eyes widened in horror. “Blown up?”

_“We can’t contact the north gate!”_

Dinah’s fist clenched white-knuckled around the receiver. Blood dripped down from her temple to the point of her chin, falling to the floor like an anger-stained tear. Conner swallowed.

 _Damn it all._ What more would it take to stop this madness?

“—You see the power he has?”

Conner turned toward the voice: the dark-haired prince from Xing. No, not a prince anymore, a _homunculus_. The one who had aligned himself against his own kind. The last one standing.

Conner growled, “What sort of monster is he?”

The homunculus’ orange eyes were hard. Grave. He held Conner’s gaze haughtily.

“He _appears_ to be an ordinary man,” he explained, disgust dripping in his tone. “However, within him is a philosopher’s stone powered by many _thousands_ of people. You could say he’s used its energy to claim the powers of God for himself.”

Conner reeled. _Thousands?_

“As alchemists,” the homunculus continued, “you understand the trouble this presents?”

Conner’s glare lowered to the ground, chest heavy with grief. “All too well.”

+

Zatanna came to with her ears still ringing.

The ground was hard beneath her where she lay. Dust coated her lungs. As she gasped in pain, the acrid smell of gunpowder and decay filled her nostrils like fire. The smell of rubble. Of burnt flesh. Of the reanimated dead—

No. Of snuffed out _human souls_.

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, letting the knowledge of her pain flood through her body. She was alive, at least. That was something.

Slowly, her eyes cracked open. Her arms twitched, the metallic tang of blood on her tongue. She leaned heavily onto her forearms.

An inexplicable shadow blocked the harsh sunlight even as the dust and debris began to settle. She tilted her head back, then gasped.

“Wally!”

The armor creaked where he knelt.

His back was to her and his arms were spread wide, shielding her. He’d taken the brunt of the hit, pieces of his makeshift metal body rent sharply apart. There was a gaping hole in his chest, exposing the blood-red seal that Bart had placed there so long ago. The seal that had to remain intact or else Wally’s bond to their realm would fail.

Light returned to the eye slits, moving to the corner in a glance back at her. He turned his head an inch.

“Zee? You alright?”

She hoisted herself to one knee. “Forget _me,_ you’re... _oh god_. Wally, your _body_ —”

The armor rattled dangerously, threatening to shatter. Zatanna’s eyes went wide.

_“Wally!”_

The armor toppled forward, crashing to the ground with a crunch. The light of Wally’s consciousness was gone again.

“ _No!”_ Zatanna crawled forward, eyes burning with tears as she clasped one metal shoulder. “Damn you to hell, Wally West! You _can’t_. Don’t you _dare_ leave us like this!”

Her head fell forward, her own body shaking and on the brink of collapse.

_Please, no. Not yet._

_We’ve come too far to die here._

+

Bart’s head swam as his eyes flickered open.

He’d been knocked flat on his back against the hard stone of the courtyard, bits of rock digging obnoxiously into his spine. He turned his head, looking down the length of his metal arm, and gave the fingers an experimental wiggle. The automail responded.

Crash. One less thing to worry about.

He bent the arm at the elbow and lifted himself up, looking around to assess the damage. His gaze zeroed in on the body lying on the ground a few feet away from him. Oh, no.

“M’gann!”

He shuffled on his knees to her side, fear gripping at his throat. “Megs? C’mon! Say something!”

M’gann twitched, groaning. “...I’m alive,” she ground out, then winced as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. She glanced over her shoulder. “Thad, he...he got to me at the last second.”

Bart’s pulse skipped a beat in surprise. He whirled around to look.

Thad was still as stone on his knees, arms stretched wide and head hanging limply forward. Scorch marks blackened the pavement everywhere except for the vee Bart and M’gann were in, a perfect triangle with Thad at it’s tip.

“Thad?” Bart called out hesitantly, then stronger. “Thaddeus!”

Thad looked as sturdy as an immovable statue. Even knowing what Bart did now about Thad’s true nature, part of him was convinced that he surely couldn’t have survived _and_ blocked the blast.

Bart’s chest rose as Thad’s head lifted fractionally, eyes hooded.

“Hey!” Bart called again. “Snap out of—”

His voice died out as his gaze was drawn upward, a figure taking shape behind Thad’s shoulder and looming over them with glowing red eyes.

 _Him_. The ultimate enemy. The one who called himself Father.

_Eobard Thawne._

With a single movement of his arm, Eobard cast Thad aside, flinging him like a ragdoll fifty feet away. He barely looked diminished, the only sign of wear showing in the veins bulging across his expressionless face.

All that effort, all that fighting, and Eobard had hardly broken a sweat.

 _“Thad!”_ Bart screamed again.

Eobard raised his hand lazily toward Bart, fingers dancing with a dark red current. He almost sounded bored when he spoke.

“You’re first.”

The lightning shot out from Eobard’s fingers and circled around Bart, quickly sapping away at his strength. Bart cried out, hardly able to breathe through the pain coursing through him. Beside him, M’gann gasped, getting similarly drained.

“S-stop it,” Bart heard the rasp of Thad’s voice, far away. “ _Leave them alone!”_

A gunshot rang out across the cobblestone. The lightning vanished along with the pain. Bart gasped in relief.

One of Dinah’s men had ducked out of cover to take the shot at Eobard, the bullet crashing home into his temple and knocking him to the ground. All it would do was disrupt him, rather than do any real damage, but it gave them an opening. For that, Bart was grateful.

“M’gann...” Bart helped her up, slinging her arm over his shoulder.

Eobard got back to his feet.

They _ran._

+

_“Fire! Fire! Keep firing!”_

Conner dashed up into the action, fists drawn and ready as the group of them climbed up into the courtyard from below.

Commands were being shouted left and right, a myriad of explosions all erupting, dead center, on the same point: Eobard Thawne. ‘Father.’ The original homunculus.

Dinah’s men were giving everything they had, battle cries echoing all around them as each took aim and let all hell break loose on their target.

“Don’t give him any opportunity to hit back!” Conner bellowed, still sprinting. “Make him use up his Philosopher’s Stone!”

With an almighty shout, Conner channeled alchemic energy through his gauntlets, summoning up stone after large stone into the air and punching them forward heavily. The stone chunks transmuted to solid iron and snapped into the shape of enormous arrowheads, flying toward Eobard with deadly precision.

Hit after hit, the projectiles and bullets found their mark, smashing into Eobard’s protective shield. The homunculus had started paying attention again after the first bullet, but that protection could only last so long. There was only so much energy a being could expel, even if Eobard _did_ think he was some sort of god.

 _We can still win this,_ Conner told himself resolutely.

They just had to outlast him.

+

Greed watched the fight from his perch on the ramparts, a sharp, hungry grin spreading across his face.

Father was still standing tall in the center of it all, the bastard, looking the soldiers over like a bored, malevolent king.

“Ha! Amazing,” he chuckled to himself. “If _I_ had power like that, this entire world would be mine in no time.”

The voice inside him scoffed at that—the _boy_ who wouldn’t fully leave this vessel. Jaime Reyes.

‘ _Ey, Greed_ ,’ Jaime addressed him directly. _‘You’ve always talked big about wanting the entire world, but is this_ really _what you meant?_ ’

“Oh _yes_ ,” Greed hissed excitedly. “Once I have that supreme power, _everything in the world_ will be mine!” He slapped a hand over the chest, right below where he knew Jaime’s human heart to be. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll even fill the emptiness inside me. An achievement like that could finally quench the thirst that I’ve lived with since the day I was born!”

Ah, how _delicious_ it would feel to be whole. To be _sated_. At last, taking his greed to the ultimate extent!

Jaime scoffed again. ‘ _Man. Incredible is right, ese. You_ still _don’t get it, do you?_ ’ He sounded disappointed. Exasperated. _‘This thing you think you’re seeking? It’s not what you_ truly _want, and I think deep down you know it.’_

Greed’s grin vanished, a cold tendril of doubt invading his consciousness. His anger flared, banishing it.

“Keep quiet, you little pest,” he growled, getting to his feet and preparing to spring. “I am Greed the Avaricious!” he shouted, running to the edge and leaping, “I want _everything!"_

+

Bart watched with bated breath as they kept the bombs and the bullets coming, hitting Eobard with wave after wave. M’gann clapped her palms together and smacked them to the ground, the stone rising at her command around Eobard in a ten foot tall semicircle.

“My turn,” Bart snarled quietly, the air around him crackling as he, too, clapped his hands together and took aim.

His automail arm snapped forward, fully extended, his flesh hand sliding backwards over it like an archer drawing a bowstring. The alchemy flared in his every cell, building up a swell of power that released out through his fingertips in one enormous wave.

Blue lightning bolted across the short distance, lighting up the semicircle of rock and blasting at the barrier. An answering swell of red burst from Eobard’s body to direct the blow away from him, but their eyes locked once again, anger meeting anger.

“Damn it,” Conner breathed behind Bart. “Not even that had any effect.”

The bullets started up again, trying to keep Eobard distracted.

Conner shouted to the men, “We have to find a way through his defenses!”

_“Keep going!”_

_“We need more ammo!”_

“Tch.” Eobard scoffed. “What a futile battle. You poor, helpless humans can’t hope to lay so much as a _finger_ on me.”

“—Maybe humans can’t,” a familiar voice rang out through the smoke. Bart’s heart rose hopefully, fluttering in his chest. “But what about a homunculus?”

Eobard’s head whipped around, eyes widening as his last living ‘child’ sprang upon him with his fist extended.

 _Jaime_.

A wild, relieved joy raced through Bart’s body. They were alive. Greed and Jaime, they’d made it!

Everything but Jaime’s face was covered in the liquid gray of Greed’s Ultimate Shield as he leapt high into the air, his fist plunging directly into Eobard’s left eye on the way down. Eobard hardly stumbled back a step as they connected, yet Jaime’s hand remained stuck in place, knees tucking up until his boots were smashed against Eobard’s chest, trying to pull free. Eobard’s surprise fell away as he grinned up at him. Greed’s own smile faltered on Jaime’s face.

“Wonderful, you’re just in time, Greed. What a _dutiful_ son you are.” Fear took hold of Bart again, Eobard’s voice deadly smooth. “As it happens, I could use another Philosopher’s Stone.”

Greed’s orange eyes narrowed furiously, a snarl ripping from his lips. Bart tensed, getting ready to run toward them.

Eobard’s grin widened. “I’ll be taking _yours_.”

_No—_

Greed bellowed as the veins on his arms bulged prominently, glowing ruby red. He struggled for a moment, thrashing around in pain and tipping his head back dramatically.

 _Over-_ dramatically?

Bart’s brow furrowed in confusion. Then—

_Oh!_

Bart almost started _laughing_.

Eobard looked smug, eyes locked on Greed as he continued crying out in pain. Then, as suddenly as it started, Greed stopped shouting entirely and tilted his head forward again. His smile was all teeth.

“Ha!” Greed said triumphantly. “Good acting right? Guess what, pops? You can’t take my stone from me without dropping your own barrier!”

Eobard’s grin dropped.

Greed gloated. “Stupid old fool. I bet you never thought your godly powers could be taken away, did you?”

Eobard’s eyes hardened, furious.

“But you were wrong,” Greed continued hungrily. “And now? They’ll be _mine!”_

For a moment Greed looked victorious, that razor-sharp smile (so unlike Jaime’s) stretched as wide as it could go. Then, once again, it faltered, Eobard’s mouth forming a hard line as the two of them grunted, straining.

Eobard still wasn’t going down without a fight. A fight that Greed, and Jaime along with him, was losing.

_No._

“ _Greed!”_ Bart sprinted forward, shouting.

A square slab of stone burst up from the ground just as Bart reached them, crumbling as it took the impact of Bart’s punch, but still managing to throw Bart backward to the ground. M’gann came at him from the other side, Connor coming in simultaneously from the front.

The three of them advanced, forcing Eobard to dance backward in a series of awkward dodges. Greed grunted, Jaime’s body getting flung this way and that as his arm remained stuck in Eobard’s face where he’d struck him. With a rallying cry, all three leapt at him at once, each prepared to land a devastating hit.

It felt like time slowed as Bart’s fist neared its target, Eobard’s mouth falling open in a silent shriek as his eyes lit up bright red.

The force of the blast sent all four of them, including Greed, flying, Bart’s automail arm splintering apart into metal scrap.

He landed unsteadily on his feet, skidding backwards. He glanced down, gritting his teeth.

 _Damnit_.

If they lived through this, Artemis was _so_ going to kill him.

His head snapped up, eyes locking on Eobard as he dashed forward again.

“Don’t give up now!” he called out to his friends, leaping into the air and swinging his leg around for a kick straight to Eobard’s head. Eobard cast him back unscathed, but he looked just a _hair_ worried now. _Finally_.

With a roar, Conner bolted back into the fray, having at the barrier with his fists. M’gann followed him, sending strike after pulverizing strike at the shield, sweat dripping down her forehead.

Bart yelled and ran up again, going for another the kick—

—and was blocked by Eobard’s forearm.

 _Just_ his forearm.

_Not alchemy._

Bart was so surprised at this revelation that Eobard was easily able to fling him away. Bart grunted, hitting the ground by Conner’s feet.

“He’s losing control,” Conner said breathlessly. “Look!”

Bart scrambled to his feet.

Eobard did indeed seem to be losing it, bending over double and clutching hard at his face as red lightning lashed out in random spurts from all over his body. With a continuous bellow of pain his arms flung open, back arching in the other direction so his chest was to the sky.

Bart watched in horror as a terrifying eye—the eye from the doorway, the eye of truth—appeared in the black cavern of his gaping mouth. Eobard thrashed around even more wildly, crashing forward onto all fours. Philosopher’s Stone Red erupted from Eobard’s body, bursting forth like a mushroom cloud, throwing Bart backwards—

Then everything went dark again.

+

_How._

_How had everything gone so wrong, so fast?_

Wally fought to bring the courtyard into focus, his connection to the material world feeling about as strong as a strand of silk in a broken spider’s web.

The armor was curled on the ground next to Zatanna, once again shielding her from one of Thawne’s brutal blasts. He focused on her first. On the arms she’d thrown up to cover her face, scraped and bruised. On her dark, battle-mussed and blood-matted hair. Then he turned, sitting up on what remained of the armor’s rear, both his legs appearing to be missing altogether.

_Perfect._

“A...stone…” A voice wheezed. Wally turned the armor’s head then froze in shock. Thawne was nearly _skeletal_ now, stumbling to his feet like a half-dead corpse. “A…Philosopher's...Stone!”

Thawne’s bulging eyes cast around over the bodies littering the ground, at Wally’s friends and allies, all knocked out cold. Wally looked frantically around as well, seeking out Bart—

—and felt fear grip his heart as both he and Thawne found him.

Bart was sitting propped up against a large piece of rubble, a long corkscrew of metal protruding up through the bicep of his flesh arm, and his automail arm torn to useless shreds. He had come to, but was grimacing in pain, lightning crackling behind his eyes as he kept his gaze fixed on Thawne.

Thawne turned toward Bart slowly, shuffling forward, unsteady and crazed.

Panic rose through Wally’s being. Thad shouted out first.

 _“Bart!_ Get out, now!”

“Cuz!” Wally cried out, unable to move his tattered excuse of a body either. “Run! Get out of there!”

Bart’s teeth gnashed as he tried to pull his arm free, blood oozing from the puncture. He hissed, flinching to a stop. Thawne dragged himself closer, step by painfully slow step.

 _“Bart!”_ Wally screamed, agonized. “ _No!_ Leave him alone, you evil bastard! _”_

He searched frantically around him for _something_ , _anything_. There was no way—not now—he would _not_ let—

He froze, suddenly, as a revelation hit him.

Oh.

Yes…that was it.

“Wally,” Zatanna knelt beside him, “what is it? What do we _do?”_

“Zee,” he said breathlessly. “I need you to do me a favor.”

“I—What?” she snapped, confused.

“Back when all this started, Bart was willing to give his right arm in order to bring my soul back,” he explained. “So, shouldn’t the _reverse_ be possible, too?”

Zatanna’s face turned pale. “Wally, what are you saying?”

“You’d just need to clear a path,” Wally said, confidence coming back into his voice with every word. It would work. Of _course_ it would. “Can you?”

“Are you crazy?” Zatanna choked. “You know what will happen if we do that!”

“There’s no time!” Wally snapped. “Zatanna, _please_. You’re the _only_ one of us who can perform alkahestry. It _has_ to be you.”

Furious tears welled in Zatanna’s eyes as she looked toward Bart, pursing her lips.

“ _God,_ ” she sobbed, unsheathing her throwing knives. “ _Damn_ you, Wallace West. Artemis is going to kill us _both_ for this.”

+

Bart’s panic began to eclipse his pain as he writhed on the ground where he sat, struggling.

Eobard was advancing, but try as he might, Bart couldn’t pull his arm free. Wally and Thad were both shouting distantly, screaming at him to get away. He wanted to. He was _trying_ , but—

“A _stone_ ,” Eobard moaned, creeping closer with his arm outstretched. “Your...energy. You vile human, _give it to me!”_

Thad was screaming violently in desperation, the noise encapsulating the escalation of horror rearing up inside Bart’s head.

Then there was a whoosh—the sound of metal embedding in stone—and when Bart turned to look, there were five throwing knives placed in a perfect pentagon beside his shoulder where his metal arm was once attached.

Time felt like it slowed to a crawl again as Bart and Eobard both traced the knives’ trajectory, their eyes coming to a rest on Zatanna’s outstretched arm. She was kneeling beside what was left of Wally’s armor, tears streaming down her face. On the ground, she had placed another five knives in a second pentagon, with Wally on his back in the center of it. Bart’s eyes widened.

 _What are you doing?_ He thought disbelievingly as Wally raised his arms to the sky.

Zatanna placed both hands on the ground.

It looked—it looked like—

Bart’s blood ran cold.

“No,” he gasped. “ _No_.”

+

Wally lifted his hands high above his head, nothing obscuring his field of vision from the beautiful, endless expanse above him.

Man. The sky was still _so blue,_ even after everything.

“Well, little cuz,” Wally murmured, “It’s all you, now, kid.”

+

Bart’s world lurched to a halt as Wally smacked his palms together. Bart let out a wounded scream.

_“NO!”_

Blue lightning erupted from Wally’s hands, encasing the armor with light so blinding it hid him entirely from view.

Fresh tears and drying blood smeared together down Bart’s cheeks.

_Please. Please._

_“WALLY!”_

+

The gate of truth hung, imposing, in negative space. Its stone doors remained shut tight.

At its base sat a pale, emaciated body. A body with long red hair and freckles.

The body of a boy.

Wally didn’t have to turn the armor to face him, so much as he simply thought it and then it was so.

The boy was sitting patiently.

So patiently.

His eyes were green.

He was smiling.

“Finally time, huh?” the boy said with Wally’s voice.

The armor took a gentle step toward him.

“Yep,” Wally said to the boy, holding his hand out. “Time to put our faith in Bart again.”

The boy— _Wally,_ Wally’s _body_ —took the armor’s hand and beamed.

+

Whole.

Together.

_Relief._

At last, he was complete.

“So,” The Truth hissed softly, sitting across from him, “your soul has entered you, huh?”

It would have been the mere outline of a human but for one solid right arm and left leg. It tilted the concept of its head.

“But, will he be coming back for you?”

Wally breathed in slowly. He smiled.

“He will,” he said confidently, gazing across to it. “I’m sure of it.”

The Truth raised its solid arm, letting it dissolve back into matter, then grinned.

+

Bart looked to his right in disbelief, heart pounding in his ears.

His arm. His _human arm_ —flesh and bone and overgrown fingernails.

It was back. The metal shoulder was _gone_. 

Fat tears obscured his vision, furious grief hitching the breath in his chest.

There was only scar tissue, now. Scar tissue and bolt or two, still embedded in his skin. There was only _one_ way that was possible, and it was _exactly_ as Bart feared.

“No, _Wally,”_ Bart choked again desperately. “Wally, you _idiot!”_

He howled as adrenaline coursed through his body, thundering his palms together as his vision went red.

A blast of lightning sent Eobard flying. Bart could no longer feel his pain. Driven by a pure righteous fury, he ripped the corkscrew from his arm and sprinted after him, yelling wildly as he summoned a barrage of lightning-laced alchemical constructs and hurled them directly into the homunculus’ shriveled face.

+

Greed could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Bart’s mess of auburn hair was whirling wildly around his face as he sprinted, his eyes a blinding white as sparks danced off his hands. He was hardly even using his alchemy to fight now, so enraged that he was pummeling Father’s pitiful form with his _bare hands_.

Ha! Who would have ever thought it? The lightning pipsqueak was _winning!_

“Alright, kid, I admit it,” Greed shook his head incredulously, “I can see now why you like him.”

The entire squadron had stopped in their tracks to watch them, hope rippling through the ranks.

 _“Take him down, Bart!”_ someone shouted.

_“—Go, Allen!”_

_“—You can do it!”_

_“—Finish him!”_

More and more voices joined the cacophonous cheer, bolstering Bart with their strength and encouragement. Greed wobbled a step backwards, shaken, a strange feeling squeezing at his chest.

What…was this?

 _‘What do you_ think _it is, ese?’_ Jaime nudged softly, _‘You felt this before, in those echoes of the_ old _you, remember? You didn’t see it then, but do you get it now? What it is you’re really looking for? Do you get now what this_ means _?’_

Greed stared at the myriad of faces around him, all swept up in this moment. These people who had all been touched in some way by the Lightning Alchemists’ lives, that were all focused and together now—here in this moment, every one of their hearts were connected, every one of them was among _friends_.

Greed’s chest ached harder. He felt...fuller.

Oh.

_Oh._

+

The boy’s fist connected with his cheek, snapping his head back. A rattling grunt wheezed from his bone dry lips.

_No..._

This _could not_ be.

It could not _stand!_

The power...the absolute power...it was slipping through his fingertips like sand!

He didn’t understand.

_He didn’t understand._

How could this happen when he had absorbed _God?!_

How could a mere human—a meager _alchemist_ —with his bare hands—!

He heard the sickening crunch before he felt it, his failing form knocked off its feet as it was sent sailing through the air, landing on its back with a shriek of pain.

_Pathetic. Pathetic!_

All the centuries of planning! All the _lifetimes_ he had _consumed!_ To fall prone at the feet of this insignificant _mortal_ now, lying broken on the cold stone, beyond repair—

_No._

_No!_

_He would not have it!_

The bottomless well of the stolen god within him reared up to his aching jaw, erupting with the howls of the damned. Red lightning struck out from him as his form swelled and contorted, searching for life, _life_ , _sustaining life,_ the last of it—

 _There_.

Gales of wind burst forth from the force of his will as he careened back to his feet.

His _son_.

The _stone!_

“THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE!”

+

For a moment, Greed thought their little alchemist had truly done it.

Father was lying flat on his back like a worthless bag of bones wrapped in ill-fitting skin, unmoving. The others had even begun to whoop in victory.

Then a pulse rent the air like a heavy heartbeat, and a tumultuous wind began.

The force of the gale was so powerful it was all Greed could do to stay on his feet. Most of the humans around him were getting blown away and tossed backward. He caught one with a grunt, snarling at them all to _pull themselves together!_ Then he turned back to Father, eyes narrowed and teeth bared.

Of _course_ it could never just be easy.

“A _stone_!” Father wailed, on his feet again, but barely. “A PHILOSOPHER’S STONE!”

Before Greed could react, Father rocketed toward him, his pupiless eyes crazed and his body half-dead. The force of the fist burying into his gut punched a gasp from Jaime’s lungs, the immediate _pull_ toward what remained of Father’s splintered soul sending Greed’s base, inner being into a frenzy.

“Give me your stone, Greed!” Father demanded raspily through clenched teeth. “Be a good _son!”_

Greed thrashed for real this time.

_Damnit! No!_

The pull was...too strong...Greed could hardly… _fight it—_

He couldn’t see through the eyes of Jaime’s body anymore, his perception forced back into his innermost self and the part of his consciousness tied directly to the Stone.

‘No! _Greed!”_ Jaime’s soul latched onto his, tugging with all his might in the opposite direction.

Greed could see the projection of Jaime’s consciousness now. Those sharp, willful brown eyes. That immovably stubborn frown. His teeth were bared as he hissed in effort, hands gripping tight to Greed’s essence, straining with every ounce of himself to keep Greed there.

 _‘Greed!’_ Jaime grunted. ‘Come _on!_ Maldición, tu bastardo, we’re not done here!’

“Ng—let go, dumbass!” Greed shouted back, struggling for purchase. “If you keep that up you’re going to get sucked in with me!”

‘No way!” Jaime snarled. “If you think I’m giving up on you now, _forget it!_ I need you with me if I’m going to save my people!’

Greed huffed a pained groan of exasperation. “Just _let go,_ kid! My entire _being_ was extracted from his greed, and the power that’s trying to reclaim me? It’s a _hell of a lot stronger_ than your body!”

‘I don’t _care!’_ Jaime shouted back. ‘You can’t just give up now! _Try harder!’_

The pull grew even stronger, making them both cry out in agony as they struggled to remain intact. Jaime’s body shook, starting to waver. Brown eyes widened.

“Jaime—!” Greed snapped fearfully, the pull unrelenting.

 _‘NO!’_ Jaime grit his teeth. ‘I don’t care _what_ the cost is! I’m not letting you go!’

Greed’s grip slipped briefly in surprise, the emptiness inside him shrinking.

_Aw, kid. You determined idiot. You stubborn fool._

“You know,” he said gently, “it’s not quite as ideal as being King of the world,” Jaime’s eyes snapped to him, “but I could deal with being Emperor of Xing.”

Jaime’s grimace of effort went slack in surprise, a swell of emotion rising on his face.

“So, let’s fight him together,” Greed said confidently, “ey partner?”

Jaime’s face lit up with determination as he grinned—letting his guard down.

“That’s more like it— _unf!_ ”

Jaime cried out sharply as Greed nailed a right hook to his jawline, releasing himself from Jaime’s grip at last.

 _Ha! More like it, indeed._ Greed huffed a victorious chuckle.

Jaime’s eyes flew wide open in betrayal, his arms scrambling, just out of reach.

‘What—’ Jaime choked. ‘Greed, what the hell?! What are you doing?’

“It’s time to say goodbye, kid,” Greed said resolutely. “There’s no point in you getting sucked into my old man with me.”

‘What? No!’ Jaime’s eyes shone, devastated. ‘You _just said_ we’d do this together—’ Greed chuckled softly again. Jaime’s jaw clenched. ‘And you—you said you couldn’t lie! That you didn’t believe in them! It can’t— _we_ _can’t_ end like this!”

Greed laughed, full bellied, now.

“Yep! Which is why I knew you’d fall for it hook, line, and sinker, you little pest!” His breathing grew labored, the force of the tug on his existence bringing him to a breaking point. “That was the one and only lie of my life.”

Jaime shook his head minutely, disbelieving.

“Thurston has a Philosopher’s Stone,” Greed said softly, “so you don’t even need me anymore, kid.”

‘The hell I don’t,’ Jaime’s voice wavered wetly. ‘ _Greed_ —’

Greed turned away, giving into the inevitable magnetism.

‘No! _Wait!_ ’ Jaime shouted after him. “Don’t do this!”

Greed hurtled his consciousness freely toward Father’s desperate body, a wide maniacal grin plastered across his face.

There was still one trick left up his sleeve, and if he was going down, his old man was going to go down with him!

Greed fed more and more of himself into Father’s waiting body, the arm lodged into Jaime’s gut starting to turn ashen and weak from his influence. With the last of his connection to Jaime’s body, Greed called out to the girl already running up behind them, dependable as always.

“Hey! Thurston!” He met her gaze for a split second, understanding passing between them immediately.

Without hesitation Traci arced through the sky above them, swinging her blade down onto the grey and tattered arm—

—and _shattered it._

“Later, kid,” Greed murmured with a pointed grin, flowing away from Jaime entirely.

The orange faded from Jaime’s eyes, returning them to their warm and natural brown. They went wide and startled as Jaime tilted his head down, able to move it _himself_ again, to look at the fist-sized hole in his shirt but otherwise unscathed stomach.

“Greed, no,” he gasped with his own voice, his own mouth, head snapping up again to search for him. Greed smiled to himself, peering out of Father’s gaping mouth, letting the ashen skin spread like a cancer up Father’s every limb.

Father gasped and sputtered, stumbling back. His arm was gone from the elbow up, his grey feet unsteady. When he spoke, his voice sounded like gravel.

“How...could you?!” he moaned.

“— _No,_ Greed!” Bart yelled.

His little lightning alchemist was running again now, toward them. He stopped short by Jaime’s side, eyes wide with that same, horrified look as the seal on Jaime’s hand, the symbol of a homunculus, of _Greed_ , dissolved away to nothing.

Father moaned raspily again, hand clutching at his tipped-back head.

Greed laughed long and loud. “Whew! I finally got away from that annoying brat.”

Father gasped again. They were nearly there, now. It would reach Father’s neck soon, then his head.

“ _Wh—why,_ Greed?!” Father groaned. “Why would you betray your own father?!”

Greed scoffed. “I’ve always had a rebellious streak, pops. Don’t act so surprised.”

The skin of Father’s diseased feet began to crack.

“I’ve reversed the Ultimate Shield you gave me,” Greed continued smugly, “and transformed your body into the most fragile carbon there is!”

“You...crafty devil—” Father reached his decaying hand into his mouth, grabbing at Greed’s essence and yanking him out as if he were a physical thing. “Fine! _Begone!_ Return to _nothing!”_

With a heavy chomp, Father severed their connection with his teeth. Greed gasped in pain. Jaime screamed.

_“Greed!”_

He floated incorporeally for a long moment, suspended in the air like a small, dark cloud. The force of the tug on Greed’s essence had been too much for Father’s remaining hand, the whole thing cracking off at the wrist crumbling to nothing, releasing Greed from its grip.

_Ah, damn it. Looks like this really is the end._

Jaime’s eyes were so round as he stared at him, on his knees, shining with unshed tears and filled with his grief and pity and disbelief. Bart was there, next to him, gaze fixed on Greed with a similar expression as he clutched protectively at Jaime’s shoulders.

Greed huffed the smallest chuckle.

 _Y’know, I could do without those pitiful looks right now, you little pests._ He smiled down at them.

What was it Jaime had told him?

 _“You’re wrong, Greed! Your friends will_ always _stay a part of you. They’re a part of your soul.”_

Ha! Maybe the kid was onto something there after all…

He closed his eyes, reliving the flashes of the old, faded memories—his old life. His first friends. And then, after he’d attacked Wrath and broke ties with his _‘family,’_ after Jaime had wrested control back from him and had gone crawling to Bart to warn him of this very day, of Father’s ultimate plans…

 _“Were you even listening to anything the Prince told you? I’m working on my_ solo _career now. All these memories came flooding back, and I kind of went nuts and attacked Wrath. If I go back, there’s no telling what they’d do to me. Besides, I don’t really work well with others, so it’s probably for the best.”_

 _“Hey, wait...why don’t you team up with_ us?” Bart had offered. Greed had scoffed, amused.

“I’m _not your boy toy, kid.”_

 _“Come on, Greed, I’m serious,”_ Bart had said, looking earnestly at Greed. _“You’ve got nowhere to go. So, why not come with us?”_

How scornfully he’d laughed. _“Team up with_ you? _You want_ me _to follow_ you? _Whew, thanks for the laugh._ ” He’d shaken his head. “ _This world is_ my _possession, not yours, kid. Now, if_ you _were to follow_ me, _that’s a different story._ You’re _welcome to join_ my _team._ ” As if he would. He’d walked away, laughing again.

_“Alright.”_

Greed had frozen in his tracks, turning back to Bart. Bart had shrugged, shooting him one of those grim little half-smirks he was always giving.

 _“Hey, I’m essentially just a dog of the military anyway, yeah? I lost my pride a while back. Besides, there’s too much at stake. I can’t let any information you’ve got slip through the cracks. Not because I let my ego get in the way.”_ His smirk had widened then as he winked. _“And sure, you might not be as cute as Jaime, but I’ll get past that eventually.”_

Greed chuckled again at the memory.

_Man, I can’t believe I let Jaime and his Lightning brat talk to me like that._

Incorporeal as he was, he still somehow felt something in the core of him growing, filling him with a peaceful warmth.

 _Yeah...it’s enough._ _It was all I ever really needed._

He took a final look at them. At Jaime’s kind face. At Bart’s fierce eyes.

_You gave me everything I could want._

Darkness encroached around the edges of his vision, but…he felt it then.

Whole. Sated.

He smiled.

_See you later, my soul friends._

+

_Foolish child_ —

_Reckless—_

_Disobedient—!_

There was _so little_ left. So little… _life_.

After all this time…had he…been bested?

A wild, grieving battle cry pierced the air, drawing his weakened gaze.

The boy.

The Allen boy.

Running at him with the full force of his bright, living body.

He gasped a rattling gasp. He had no hands to lift against him, no grip on the earth to brace himself with. The boy’s newly returned arm wound up as he leapt into the air—

—And punched straight through his chest and out the other side.

With a guttural noise he stumbled, back arching.

From the gap, from the _stone—his broken, Philosopher’s Stone_ —out poured the countless masses of human souls.

+

The whoosh of wind made Jaime squint as Eobard’s broken stone released the contents of its human suffering into the open air—its thousands, _countless_ thousands, of souls.

Jaime was wrung out. _He ached._ But he was also nearly overcome by the wash of relief.

It was done.

 _Surely_ there couldn’t be anything left to face, after this.

Bart stood tall in the center of it all with his chin held high, the wind ruffling his auburn curls as he stared down at the hollow homunculus.

He looked...regal, like this. Like exactly the hero everyone said he was.

The corners of his mouth twitched up into a bittersweet smile despite it all, his heart squeezing with pride for him.

“My Stone…You destroyed my stone.”

Eobard even _sounded_ hollowed out, his voice squeaky and pitiful. Shadowy hands from the realm beyond extended out from the hole Bart had punched through him, snaking around what remained of Eobard’s form, dragging it inward.

“What—this can’t—oh, what _is_ this?” Eobard keened.

Bart’s expression hardened, brows tilted down.

“Go back to where you were born, homunculus,” Bart commanded, resolute. “Go back to _nothing_.”

Eobard wailed, the shadows contorting his form in on itself, smaller and smaller, until finally—

Finally.

There was nothing left.

+

Bart closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, just letting himself breathe.

It was over. Amestris was saved. Just...at a cost he wasn’t sure he could bear.

He inhaled once more, long and deep, then opened his eyes.

Jaime was already there.

Bart tilted his head up to meet the Prince’s weary gaze, gripped with a flurry of emotions as noted the orange tinge to his eyes had disappeared. He immediately wrapped his arms around him, not much caring that everyone was watching, and tucked his face in the crook of Jaime’s neck. Jaime stiffened in surprise, then held him back tightly, burying his nose into Bart’s hair.

For a beat, Bart soaked in the comforting warmth of his arms, then he huffed a sheepish chuckle, pulling back.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “Just glad to see you made it.”

Jaime shot a small, sad smile back at him. “Yeah. You, too.”

“—Bart.” It was Thad.

Bart turned to his twin. Thad inclined his blonde head in the direction of the circle of men that was forming across the courtyard, where he'd last seen Wally and Zatanna.

Hollowness ached, bone-deep in Bart’s chest.

The soldiers parted for him as he approached, some of them sending him looks of solemn solidarity, some gazing hopefully, like they were waiting for him to pull out once last trick. He couldn’t blame them, Bart was waiting to see if he could somehow magically pull a solution out of thin air, too.

Zatanna was still kneeling beside what was left of the empty suit of armor. Bart knelt beside it as well, across from her, and placed his hands gently on what had once housed his cousin’s soul.

Zatanna’s head was tipped forward, the dark curtain of her hair obscuring her tear stained face.

“Bart…I’m,” she swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry.”

He sighed.

“It’s not your fault, Zee,” he said softly. “It was Wally’s decision.”

“Relámpago,” Jaime called excitedly. “Wait, there’s still one option left.”

Bart looked curiously over his shoulder at where Jaime had come up behind him. Traci was at his side, handing Jaime something.

Bart’s eyes locked on the tiny bottle, its contents a familiar ruby red.

“A toll needs to be paid, right?” Jaime said. “So, pay it. Use this to open the portal to the other side and bring Wally back.”

Bart looked at it warily. “Where…?”

“I found Wrath during the battle as he was dying,” Traci said. “He’d stolen a Philosopher’s Stone from the mad doctor who had helped create him...Not that it did either of them any good, in the end.”

“It could do good now, though,” Jaime insisted. “Bart—”

Bart held a hand up to silence him, shaking his head. A lump formed in the center of his throat. His jaw clenched.

“I can’t.” He looked again at the armor, the backs of his eyes burning. “As much as I _want_ to, I can’t.” He shut his eyes tightly, fighting back the tears. “When Wally I discovered the terrible truth of how the Philosopher’s stones were made...I _promised_ him that we’d never use one to get our bodies back. And besides, _you_ need that stone to save your people. Wally would never forgive me for being so selfish.”

“—Then use me.”

Bart’s eyes snapped open. He looked up, stunned, into his twin’s determined face.

Thad held his gaze. “Use _my_ life for the toll to save Wally.”

Anger surged defiantly through Bart’s veins.

“No,” he growled. “No way! This doesn’t have anything to do with you. It was our own damn fault we lost our bodies, me and _Wally_. I’m not using another human life to get Wally back, no matter whose it is!” His vision swam with tears. “Why should _you_ sacrifice your life for our mistakes?”

“Because you're my brother,” Thad shot back. “And you're wrong. This _does_ have something to do with me.” Thad’s gaze turned earnest, almost pleading. “If I hadn’t left you, if I’d been there to _stop_ you, this might never have happened.”

The tears fell freely down Bart’s face.

“I’m _sorry_ , Bart.” Thad said. “So let me do this. Let me do this _one_ thing.”

Bart’s hands balled up into fists. He scrubbed the tears from his face.

“Shut up,” he choked. “ _Shut up!_ You may be a lousy brother, but that means you have to stick around to _fix it,_ you hear me?”

Thad’s expression shifted in surprise, eyes going misty as he swallowed hard. He dropped Bart’s gaze and nodded.

Bart turned to the armor again.

 _Think,_ he begged himself. _C’mon!_ _You’re the youngest state alchemist in_ history _, damnit! You’ve even passed through your own portal of truth so you can transmute with your_ bare hands _. There’s got to be some way. There_ has _to be!_

He thought of Artemis. Of all the people who were counting on him. Who had helped them. Who had believed in his and Wally’s goal. He looked around the courtyard, at all the people who had fought so hard to follow him in fending off the biggest threat there had ever been to humankind. At all his friends who were looking at Wally’s armor in mourning. Conner. M’gann. Zatanna. Jaime and Traci. Even Thad.

He looked at his trembling hands, all _two_ of them again. Two, for the first time since all of this had started. Then his eyes widened.

Oh.

Huh.

Y’know, that just might work.

+

Jaime felt for Bart’s loss. He truly did. But out of all the weird things Jaime had seen people do out of grief, this might have been the most perplexing.

“Zee, you might want to move back.” Bart had said. Then he’d picked a stick up from the ground and wandered to the middle of the shallow crater that now made up the center of the courtyard, beginning to scratch something into the stone.

What began to emerge looked like a transmutation circle, but Bart’s _whole thing_ was that he didn’t need to draw transmutation circles in order to use his alchemy. Why would he be drawing one now?

Jaime glanced at Traci, who just shrugged. Then he squinted, looking harder at the symbol Bart was etching. Suddenly, with horror, he recognized it.

“Wha—Bart!” he ran forward, stopping Bart’s progress by clutching hard at his hands. “Are you crazy? That’s a _human_ transmutation circle! That’s what got you into this mess in the first place!”

Bart merely smiled at him.

“Yep. It sure is.”

Jaime opened his mouth then closed it again, at loss. “Then, what—”

“Don’t worry,” Bart smiled more confidently. “I should be back in a few minutes.”

Jaime’s stomach clenched with panic. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“Well,” Bart said, speaking quiet enough that only Jaime could hear him, “then, just in case…”

Jaime met Bart’s bright green eyes, heart racing as he drew closer—and was more than happy to pull Bart’s mouth the rest of the way to him.

+

Bart curled his fingers into Jaime’s collar as their mouths pressed hard together, kissing him hot and desperate as he tugged him down as close as he could have him. Jaime tangled his fingers tightly in Bart’s hair, clutching at him like he was something precious. Like he may never get another chance.

Bart’s heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of his chest, warm joy tingling through him and mingling with the undercurrent of his grief.

He drew back slowly, smiling against Jaime’s lips, then rested their foreheads together for a moment longer.

“Wish me luck, your highness,” Bart murmured.

“Don’t mess this up, and you won’t need it,” Jaime chided gently.

Bart grinned. He took a step back. Jaime backed up out of the way, his eyes never leaving Bart’s.

Bart stood tall in the center of the circle, spreading his arms wide as adrenaline ramped up in his veins.

“This is my last transmutation,” Bart announced to them all with a grin. “So, stand back and enjoy the show.”

He started to swing his hands together.

“—Relámpago,” Jaime called. Bart paused. Jaime smiled. “Come back to me.”

Bart winked at him, then clapped.

+

The boy that appeared before The Truth was familiar. Older now, certainly, than when they had last met, and more powerful too. In his eyes though was that same hunger The Truth recognized. The same bright-eyed curiosity of his companion.

 _Ah._ The Truth was pleased. _So he did indeed decide to come._

“I take it you’re here to retrieve your cousin,” The Truth spoke, “but what is your payment? Just how do you plan on pulling an entire human out of here?” It cocked its head. “Do you intend to offer your own body?”

The boy smirked.

“I’ve got your payment all right.” He pointed his thumb at the grey, stone gateway behind him. “It’s right here. So go ahead and take it.”

The Truth stared open mouthed at him, taken aback. Bart Allen’s smile grew wider.

“This thing is _my_ portal of truth,” he said, shrugging, “so I get to make the decision on how it’s used, right?”

The Truth grinned, bringing its concept of a hand to its forehead with a bemused laugh.

“It’s come to that?”

Bart shrugged again. The Truth laughed harder.

“You’re sure about this?” it asked. “You do realize that, without your portal, you’ll never be able to perform alchemy again.”

Bart angled himself to look up over his shoulder at the portal.

“Yeah. I’m aware of that.” His brows furrowed. “This portal, I know it contains every secret alchemy has to offer.” He looked back at The Truth. “But, it's also led me astray. I saw the truth that lies within it, and became convinced I could solve everything with alchemy...I couldn’t have possibly been more wrong.” He shook his head. “That was just arrogance.”

The Truth asked again, “So you’re willing to cast it aside? To lower yourself to a simple human?”

“‘Lower myself?’” Bart scoffed. “A simple human is the only thing I’ve ever been.”

“You’re sure you’ll be okay without it?” The Truth prodded further. “Think carefully now.”

Bart smiled, closing his eyes. “C’mon. Who even needs alchemy when I’ve got _them_?” He pointed again back to the portal, indicating the ones who were waiting for him back on the other side.

A broad grin spread across The Truth’s face. It laughed again with pure joy.

“Yes. Yes, that’s it! You’ve done it! That’s the right answer!” The Truth exclaimed. “Good job, you’ve beaten me. Go ahead, take him home!”

Bart grinned. With a determined look and a clap of his hands, he turned around and planted his palms on the portal.

The Truth stood, still smiling wide as both it and the portal began to disintegrate.

“The back door is right over there,” The Truth gestured behind it. “Well done. And goodbye, Bart Allen.”

+

Bart watched the last remnants of The Truth fade away, no longer blocking his path. Behind it, at last, was the face he’d been hoping for years to see again.

The years of disconnect had taken a toll on Wally’s body. He was all skin and bone, sitting with one of his knobby knees propped up and a long-nailed hand resting on it. His bright red hair was long and overgrown as well, but despite it all, Wally was smiling up at Bart like he’d never been happier.

Bart’s heart swelled as he took him in, then started walking toward him.

Wally pushed himself wobbly to his feet, clutching Bart’s forearms for balance.

“That was a crazy thing to do, Walls,” Bart admonished, grinning.

Wally huffed a laugh. “Hey, speak for yourself.”

Bart secured Wally’s arm around his neck, taking most of his weight.

“Well,” he smiled, “you ready?”

Wally looked determinedly at the final gate.

“Born ready.”

  
  


**Epilogue** **  
**

“You okay?”

Wally opened his eyes, enjoying the smell of the fresh country air and the soft breeze playing across his face. The stone wall was warm under him, his wooden crutch leaning against it beside his hand.

“Yeah,” Wally looked up at Bart, who had backtracked to stand beside him. “Just didn’t realize my muscles had atrophied so much on the other side.”

Bart cocked his head with a small, teasing smirk.

“You want me to carry you?”

Wally rolled his eyes, smacking Bart’s leg lightly with the back of his hand as Bart laughed.

“Thanks, squirt, but I can walk around on my own.” Wally said, heaving himself back to his feet. “I just have to move at my own pace, is all. You can go ahead, if you want.”

Bart nudged Wally’s shoulder with his own.

“No way. We left here together, and that’s how we’re going to go back!”

Wally smiled.

“Alright. We better get moving then.”

Bart nodded. “Let’s go home.”

+

Artemis woke to the sound of Brucely barking. She was still at the kitchen table, her books open beneath her folded arms and sunlight streaming in through the windows. She rubbed her eyes blearily.

_Ung, must’ve dozed off reading._

She turned toward the front hallway, the dog still yipping loudly at something outside.

“What’re you barking at now?” she sighed exasperatedly, pushing her chair back and walking to the front door.

Just as her hand reached the knob, she heard it, freezing in her tracks at the sound of a familiar laugh.

“Agh, c’mon! Down, Brucely, that tickles!”

Her heart jumped to her throat.

She knew that voice better than she knew herself. And...that sound. There was no echo. No metallic tone to its quality.

She flung open the front door.

The day was bright and warm, the grass swaying in the breeze on either side of the long dirt road leading up to their home. Birds were chirping in the nearby trees. A suitcase lay, discarded in the center of the road.

Brucely’s tail was wagging up a storm as he jumped on him excitedly, licking joyfully at his face.

His face.

Thick red hair, cheeks covered with freckles, and eyes a bright emerald green.

She stared, dumbfounded, then glanced up at the boy beside him—at _Bart_ , smiling warmly and sending her tiny wave with his _right hand_.

Her vision swam wetly.

At last, Wally looked up from scratching behind Brucely’s ears and saw her. He stood up, a grin slowly spreading across his lips.

In an instant she was off the porch, blonde hair streaming out behind her as she ran. Wally was laughing again by the time she reached them, careening into the two of them so hard they toppled onto the dirt road beneath her.

She was smiling so hard her face hurt, half sobbing, half laughing with them as she hugged them both to her fiercely. Finally, she pushed up onto her hands and looked down at Wally— _her Wally_ —shaking her head.

“You idiot,” she sniffed. “I _so_ want to kiss you right now. Or maybe _kill_ you, for putting us all through this.”

Wally chuckled at that, eyes shining as he lifted a hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Then he smirked.

“Hold that thought,” he murmured, leaning up to kiss her cheek and letting his lips linger by her ear. “You can decide later, when we’re alone.”

+

“So...what’ll you do now?”

Bart lifted his chin from his hand, looking up where Artemis was leaning against the kitchen counter with a hot cup of tea in her hands.

Bart shrugged pensively.

“I’m not sure. There’s still a lot of good out there I could do, y’know? Even without my alchemy. And a lot I can still learn.”

He looked at the map on the table.

“Maybe…maybe I’ll travel around for a while. See what calls to me.”

Wally snorted.

“I don’t know,” Wally sang teasingly. “Sounds to me like the only thing ‘calling to you’ was a certain future Emperor of Xing.”

Bart blushed, huffing a laugh.

“I mean, it’d be _rude_ not to at least visit, right?” he shrugged again, crossing his arms behind his head.

Artemis smirked knowingly at him.

“Well, royal boyfriend notwithstanding, you should still stay here for a while first. You two have been through a lot. You deserve a chance to finally rest before getting yourself into more trouble.”

Bart grinned. “Me? Trouble? Never.”

Artemis raised a brow. “I’ll be making more blueberry pie,” she enticed him.

Bart heaved a heavy sigh. “ _Alright_ , fine, if you put it that way...”

Artemis laughed.

He smiled back at her, looking from Artemis to Wally, to the tiny kitchen he’d grown up in.

Yeah, he could stay for a little while longer.

The future could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> We're just going to pretend that I actually posted this on Day 1 and not Day 5 okay? okay.  
> I won't be doing a day 2 prompt since my WIP [Remember Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18859702/chapters/44762326) already is basically just a "Memories" prompt, lol, but I will try to participate in at least a couple of other prompts before the week is over & I will be having my eye on the tag to read everyone else's fics!!


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